The City of Young
by Xenophili
Summary: Their world is simply a city, a battlefield of war and survival. They must rely on each other to live on, but the only problem is, their population is nothing but a bunch of 13-year-olds. How did this happen? And what goes on in the City of Young?


"Get down!" Someone yelled off to the left, and immediately everyone in the vicinity ducked or dove to the ground. Not a moment later an explosion went off in front of them, rubble falling over their heads and dust making its way into their hair.

The very foundation of the earth shook and dilapidated structures fell and crumbled to dust. The skidders of feet could be heard and screams and yells frequented the air.

All around the dust covered their vision and choked their lungs and coated their bodies as the small army made their way through it, as if it were to clear, there would be nothing to see anyways. It wasn't an army small in numbers, though, but small in the actual size of the individuals. Some heights barely scratched the ten-year-old height mark.

These children ran with knives, daggers, and even guns. Some simply had a shard of glass gathered up from a discarded broken window, and were going at the opposing force with all they had.

Until the bombs started going off.

"Fall back!" The same voice from earlier called after the initial commotion had died down enough for them to be heard.

Immediately people were scampering back and falling behind half-standing walls or taking cover in ditches before they could make another run for safety. Another explosion went off, though not as near as the first one was.

A blonde-haired boy was still running from the affected location of the first blast after having taken precious time ushering a smaller child onto their feet after they had tripped over a rock, and was caught in the second one just as he went to hide behind a large mound of bricks.

He tripped as the shockwave caught at his ankles and his elbows skidded across the rough and gravelled ground, catching most of the fall but being torn up all the same.

He stopped by the feet of another boy, this one having spiky dark hair that was ruffled from all the commotion, and who had his back pressed up against the mound. Both of their faces were covered in dirt and grime.

As the blond still lay on the ground, making no move to get up as he covered his head with arms that were bleeding freely into his hair, the dark-haired boy moved to him and yanked him up by his shirt jerkily. The blond boy staggered to get his ground as the dark-haired boy yelled at him.

"What are you doing, you idiot?" he near-screamed as somewhere far off gunfire started sounding, and they covered their heads and ducked down to the ground again.

"You're going to get yourself killed!" the dark-haired boy continued on, and the blond made an angry face at him when he picked his head up from his knees.

"I'm trying to make sure everyone else gets out of here fine! Unlike you, Sasuke!" the boy retorted, and moved to look from around the mound they were hiding behind to check for the enemy and people in need. "You just went ahead and ran away from everything."

"I can't help anyone if I'm _dead, _Naruto!" Sasuke yelled, and peeked around the other side of the bricks, but not for the same reason as his blond-haired counterpart. He was just simply looking for enemies.

There was movement in the dusty air, but it was too hazy and they were too far for him to try to take a shot with the machine gun he held close to himself.

"You can't help anyone by _running away_, either!" Naruto yelled as more gunfire sounded and foots stomped across the ground. People were rushing past their cover, he could tell, in the direction of their hide-out in the ground. He made no move to follow, and neither did Sasuke.

"At least I didn't lose my gun," the dark-haired boy said as he clutched at his like a lifeline.

Naruto made a sound with his teeth, annoyed at the comment. "I ran out of bullets a long time ago. You know, actually_ using _them for something!" Naruto glared at Sasuke's ample amount by his feet and still-loaded in his gun. He remembered using his to bash in someone's face before he had to drop it and run when they pulled out a knife and tried to gut him.

Sasuke turned to yell back at Naruto when all he could do was gape as someone, obviously not on their side, came running up to them from behind, gun aimed at the back of Naruto's head.

"Watch out!" Sasuke yelled, and dove to cover the shocked boy.

Shots rang out in the heavy air, but the pain of them never found Sasuke. When he dared to chance a glance, he saw the person had fallen and now lay still, bleeding out and making mud with the dirt.

Immediately he swung his head around to see who had saved them when he felt himself grabbed by the back of his shirt and dragged to his feet. But the force didn't stop as the hand directed him farther south, away from the war zone.

Naruto scrambled to his feet when the weight of Sasuke left him. He grabbed up Sasuke's gun to sling around himself and his ammo before staggering after him and the person dragging Sasuke along, still stunned at what had just happened. Glancing behind him he saw the fallen enemy, noting how they couldn't have been older than himself, maybe even younger. He grimaced and pulled his attention ahead of him.

Naruto now looked to the figure that was beginning to chastise Sasuke, and was relieved immediately even though this was the person that had just gunned down a child, but knew this was also no time to be relaxing. They had to get to a safe destination first.

This was also when he noticed they were the only ones running, the area already having been vacated on both sides except for that stray that had shot at them earlier. Everything was beginning to go deathly silent, and the dust was settling.

"Sasuke, I had called for a retreat, or are you too busy arguing to have heard me?" a boy, obviously older than all of them, yelled over the din of some stray catchers as he continued to hold on to Sasuke, urging him to move quicker even though they were very nearly sprinting already. The silence that came to a field after a battle was nearly suffocating and urged them on.

His hair was medium in length and tied messily out of his face in a ponytail. He held an extreme height advantage over the two thirteen year-olds, being eighteen himself. His eyes had a dangerous glint to them as he glanced over at Sasuke, who could only hold his head down, defiant to look at him. He held his own gun in his hand, which had fired and taken down the child that was aiming at Naruto and Sasuke earlier. It was just a simple pistol.

"There were too many bombs going off to have heard you," Sasuke retorted to the teen, and received a yank at the collar because of it.

"You were almost killed, Sasuke," the older said sternly, but didn't speak anymore.

They reached a patchy area where a heavy metal door lay in the ground and where the dust wasn't so disturbed. The teen yanked it open and ushered Sasuke inside, waited until Naruto caught up and dove in before he sank in after them and slammed it closed over his head.

Inside was dark and cold. The space was narrow and short, the ground made of packed dirt and cement slabs.

The teen reached up and locked the door from the inside. After he did that he went on down the underground hallway, footsteps echoing off the stone and dirt walls. Sasuke and Naruto followed eagerly behind, their feet almost catching on their leaders' ankles, they were so close.

Their pace was hurried as they walked down the long way that seemed to descend at a steep slope further into the earth as they went along, and only their erratic breathing could be heard as none of them spoke. At a time like this in front of their leader, Naruto and Sasuke dared not argue with each other. In fact, it was the _only_ time they never argued.

They were turning down other paths like a maze, and had no time to light matches at the pace they were going, and instead moved by memory. They had been implanted into their very bodies from years ago when they first found the passage.

Soon they came to a heavy metal door to which the oldest yanked open. Immediately they were all cast in dim lighting from weak lights bulbs and fires, and scurried inside to a far larger space, locking the door behind them.

The area they had stepped into was a large and wide circular cavern, complete with an upstairs embedded into the very foundation. To the far left were high-stacked crates and messily scattered barrels that contained rations and equipment of any kind. To the right of it were tables situated to be the dining area, counted to be about fifty of them. The furniture was made completely of wood, some looking to have been carved straight out of the tree trunks themselves. The tables sat high and low and the chairs varied in size.

To the far right of the door were the bunks, divided by gender and age and separated by walls of rock. Each division was situated into its very own little cave.

And in front of them was the emergency medic ward set up specifically for those returning from that day's battle, not wanting to disrupt the peace or order of the more permanent ward set up farther back than the bunks.

Everything in the room was spaced out accordingly. In fact, there was just enough room between the dining area and the medic ward to place a nice-sized house between them. The ceiling was high enough to be three-stories tall.

There was a collective gasp from the room's occupants as the three by the door looked out at the room. The noise came from people, kids, that were scattered about, dirty-faced and bandaged but relieved as they spotted the eldest of them all, standing with the other two. They all rushed over to them, all eighty of them, silent yet eager greetings filled the air, and the tall dark-haired teen ushered them all quiet.

He took a quick glance around, analyzing the children injured, counting their numbers, noting who was missing.

As he failed to find a certain spiky head of hair his eyes widened, then narrowed suspiciously.

"Where is Konohamaru?" he whispered and immediately everything went still. Suddenly no one could meet his eyes as uncertain glances were shared between the kids gathered around him. Nobody dared speak, though.

The teen scowled at them. "Where is Konohamaru?" he repeated louder, and some flinched at his tone, backing away. Others escaped by mumbling something about having to take care of the wounded laying on the makeshift nursing beds while others were trapped under the eyes of scrutiny, not having any immediate duty to escape to.

Finally someone stepped up, a girl with orange puffy hair, younger than the general population.

"H-he, snuck out to the fight when we weren't looking, Itachi, sir," she mumbled to him, eyes downcast.

"And no one tried to stop him?" Itachi growled, looking around to all the guilty faces.

"We did!" The orange-haired girl squeaked, then covered her mouth with her hands. She spoke through her fingers. "We took his knife, but he just yelled at us and went without it. We tried to hold him down, but he was too fast, and g-got away." She scrambled to finish at the end as she looked into Itachi's eyes. He was angry.

Then he sighed and ran a hand down his face. "So now he's locked out there with no weapon, in the middle of a battle," he said, tired, and moved through the crowd of thirteen-year olds and younger to find a place to sit. He reached a table with more chairs than it could handle scattered around and rested on one of them. The crowd didn't know what much to do, and instead turned with him, eyeing him cautiously.

Naruto hadn't moved from his place at the door, while Sasuke was already over by the medics getting his wounds patched up. He glared at Itachi.

"We have to go help him!"

"No," came Itachi's response immediately. Naruto steeled himself as he went to stand in front of Itachi, still clutching at Sasuke's gun slung around him while he had already dropped the ammo somewhere by the entrance of the underground cave.

"Are you telling me to just leave him out there!" Naruto yelled at Itachi's face, his own going red as the children were still looking on the situation, never really having gone back to their jobs.

Itachi swept his gaze around at them all, and they got the message, scampering away to tend to their duties.

"Naruto," Itachi said, finally addressing him after a pause of studying the other children. "It was Konohamaru's decision to leave, so he must make it back here himself. We can not go wasting precious resources any way we wish. It was his decision to leave, so he must bring himself back."

"So you're just going to leave him out there to die!" Naruto screamed, hand splaying out as though it was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard.

"He will come _back,_ Naruto," Itachi said with finality. "One way or another, he will come back."

As Naruto sent him one last withering glare he stomped off to the medics, thrusting Sasuke's gun into his chest, leaving him winded, and they started another pointless argument while the nurses tried to clean their wounds.

Itachi could only slump in his chair as someone came over to bandage up his forehead, patting at it and cleaning away dirt from the wound.

He hadn't even known he was bleeding.

As he was being tended to he watched the two he had walked in with. Naruto and Sasuke were right by each other despite their claim to hatred. They were in honesty the two that worked together the best on the field. Sure their personalities may clash, but when it came down to the grind, those kids were all business.

And he couldn't help but smile faintly at that.

Sasuke had found himself good company.

"I'm telling you, your strategy _failed_!" Naruto yelled as he was forced to sit down on a cot next to Sasuke's. Apparently he had already gotten over the whole Konohamaru situation, and was ready to start another one to let some steam off. "Nearly half of your traps were seen through, and of the ones that were hidden well enough only half of _those _were actually used how they were intended!"

"Well I don't see your _aim_ getting any much better!" Sasuke retorted as his shirt was lifted over his head for him and someone checked over his bruised chest. "You're always shooting to the left of your target. And you're very wasteful with resources!"

"Well you're not sparing _enough_!"

"I use them sufficiently!"

"Do not!"

"Do _too_!"

"Do _not_!"

Suddenly they both stood up at the same time, knocking back the people that were desperately trying to tend to them while they argued with each other. There was hardly any use trying to calm them down; the last time had ended disastrous.

"Just because you _lost _all your stuff doesn't mean_ I _have to!" Sasuke said.

"And just because I _used_ all my stuff doesn't mean I _wasted_ them!" Naruto replied hotly.

"Naruto!"

"Sasuke!"

"_SIT DOWN!"_

A third voice suddenly cut through their argument, effectively stopping both boys mid-strike.

They were both up off their cots with medics finally trying their best to hold them back without succeeding, and the both of them had a hold on each other either by an arm or the shoulder since neither had shirts on to take a hold of, fists pulled back and ready to swing forward.

They froze as they heard the command, and were hesitant to look for the source, already knowing they were in trouble. And before they could make up their mind on what to do, both of their heads were forced to swing forward, knocking into each other with a resounding force.

Both boys cried out and held their foreheads while falling back on to their respective cots, eyes tearing up and a wonderful bruise settling right in the middle of their foreheads.

Someone walked up between them, a path having been made through the others standing around, and this new person looked on in angry contempt.

It was a girl, roughly their height and age, with long pink hair tied back in a ponytail that swayed smartly around her waist as she walked, green eyes glaring and feet set firm on the ground. Her size-too-large khaki pants were covered in pockets and held at her waist with a black belt stretched almost to the last hole. She wore a dark gray tank top and on top of that a long white lab coat that reached her knees with the arms rolled up to her elbows, and a stethoscope hanging around her neck. Her arms were crossed in front of her and her expression was not pleased with what she saw.

When Naruto looked up he immediately straightened, recognizing the head nurse and not wanting to be knocked out by her, _again_.

Sasuke only chanced a glance at her, before he set his glare on Naruto as if this was all his fault.

"What do you two think you're doing, fighting in the middle of the medic ward, making up more injuries for us to worry about?" the girl said, absolutely annoyed at their behavior and skipping over the irony of her statement. "You both know we just got in from battle minutes ago! And already you're making a commotion!"

Then she looked to the frozen nurses around her, as though they had also done something wrong.

"And whose idea was it to put these two next to each other, knowing they don't get along?"

Nobody spoke, but only busied themselves in escorting Naruto to a bunk further down into the temporary ward, and Sasuke to another as well so they could tidy up the now-torn bed sheets. Thanks to the head nurse the situation had been taken care of efficiently and dissolved relatively calmly.

The girl sighed, and followed the direction where Naruto had vanished off in, knowing already his injuries were going to be the worse of the two.

When again Naruto spotted her he instinctively flinched, but she made no move to hit him again. Instead, she simply checked the extent of his wounds with her eyes before touching on the more serious ones.

She checked the underside of his arms and almost tsked at him.

"Dirt-diving again, are we?" she said disapprovingly before waving a nurse over with a towel soaking in a large metal bowl.

The head nurse took it and wrung it out a bit before applying it generously to all of Naruto's arm. He complained of course, since it stung his incredibly deep and long wounds with all the medication swirled into the water, but stopped quickly after a rather sincere threat was shot his way.

"I'm sorry, Sakura," Naruto grumbled after his left arm was bandaged up and they started on the right, making him wince. "Didn't mean to get this banged up."

At this Sakura's eyebrows relaxed a bit, though still held some sternness in them. "I know, Naruto, you were just trying to help the others. I've heard the stories."

Naruto brightened up at this news. "What, so people are talking about me then, huh?" And he grinned that stupid big grin of his. Sakura knocked him on the head lightly.

"Don't let it get to your head, idiot."

After she finished with Naruto's arms and checked him for any bruised bones or fractures, she moved to Sasuke who didn't seem to be quite so welcoming with her presence. It could have been due to the fact that immediately when she got there she jabbed him in between the ribs, pretending to check if a bruise on his chest had made its way down to his bones.

"I didn't start anything," was all he could say, a scowl etched upon his dirty features as Sakura rolled up his pants to his knees and touched over his legs where most of the damage on him seemed to be.

"Stop being such a child," Sakura scolded as she let one leg drop to the ground and picked the other up. "It takes two to tango. Naruto can't argue with himself, contrary to popular belief."

Sasuke scoffed at that, but refrained from commenting, seeing as Sakura had his more damaged and more used leg in hand, and could make his healing experience very painful.

"You have major bruising on your shin here. It could hinder your movements for a while, since you also rely on your legs so much in battle," Sakura said as she straightened up and called a nurse over to clean and bandage his right leg. "I want you to stay off it for a while."

Sasuke glared at the thought of being immobile for any amount of time. "I ran back here with no problem," he said. "My leg's fine!"

"Do you want me to make you an invalid?" she threatened. "'Cause I'll do it."

Sasuke only turned his head to the side, knowing her threats were very real. Sakura was intent on her patients, and especially her friends, getting the rest they needed and didn't worsen their wounds simply because they were too stubborn to accept that they were hurt. Even if it meant knocking them out for a week.

He'd seen it done to Naruto enough times to know.

"No," he grumbled finally when he realized Sakura was actually waiting there for a response. When she got it she gave a terse nod and walked away to check on the other children waiting patiently and not quite so disruptively as Naruto and Sasuke.

...

...

It was lights out by the time Konohamaru reappeared.

The battle from earlier in the day had already ended late, and the camp of children were more than ready to call it in early.

So when Konohamaru sprung up from what seemed like nowhere, all people could do was groan and grumble about how he had woken them all up by yelling out his return. It's not like they weren't relieved he was alright, they just weren't _happy _about being woken up for it.

After being met with such weak enthusiasm, the dark-haired eight-year-old simply sulked over to the younger bunks to rest in his bed, only to be stopped as someone hit him across the top of his head.

"Oww!" Came his high-pitched, childish voice as he turned around to see who had delivered the blow.

It was Naruto, standing over the boy in his night clothes, intimidating and angry. He grabbed the younger by the front of his shirt and hoisted him up a few inches so they could see almost face-to-face.

"What did you think you were doing, going out there with no weapon!" Naruto yelled as Konohamaru all but glared back defiantly as though he had done nothing wrong.

They were standing in the middle of the younger bunks, everything having gone still as _real _fights between Naruto and Konohamaru didn't happen too often. It was only when Konohamaru really messed up and Naruto truly got upset, _at the same time_. Either happening by themselves was a rare enough occurrence. No one knew how to react to them happening at the same time.

"Well I would have had a weapon, if Moegi hadn't taken it from me!" Konohamaru yelled back, and Naruto hit him across the head again, making the kid rub at the spot aggressively and hiss through his teeth.

"You could have gotten killed!" Naruto yelled louder, but no one moved to quiet him down. "You _know _third-gens don't go into battle! You're too young!"

"Don't talk like you're the boss of me, Naruto!" Konohamaru sid. He struggled in the grip on his shirt, trying to get away. It was of no use, though. He wasn't nearly as strong as the blond holding him."You were a third-gen just last year! Don't act so mighty!"

As Naruto's glare turned fiercer at the spoken words he studied Konohamaru's face in more detail as best he could in the extremely dim lighting. He was dirty, with blotches of mud caking his hair and splatters of it decorating his neck. From his peripheral he could tell his clothes were even worse for wear. His pants were dyed a dirty brown from what must have been muddy water, and dried stiff. His long-sleeved black shirt was torn at both elbows where he could see bruises forming in nasty purples and blues.

And when Konohamaru bared his teeth at him he could only stare at the empty single space in the front of his teeth and remember the story behind it. Just the thought of the feeling he had at that time when it happened doubled his anger towards the kid.

Then he took in Konohamaru's appearance as a whole, his defiant glare... His need to do something instead of just sitting around the cavern, waiting for them all to return from their battles because he was too young to go with them. If he had cared enough, Naruto would have seen the tears starting to form in the younger one's eyes.

He remembered when he was this age. When he was still a third-gen, and so _young, _was all he could think as he continued to stare at Konohamaru's face. It was round due to his young age, still filled with the innocence of true childhood.

Naruto remembered his own attitude, and his need to do just exactly what Konohamaru was doing now.

And he _remembered_ exactly what he had lost because of it.

Just as it looked like Naruto was about to nail him a third time across the head, a deep commanding voice called out from behind them both.

"That's enough, Naruto." It was Itachi, clean and dressed in his scouting clothes, forehead cleanly bandaged and hidden, equipment hanging off him securely.

Half of his body was shrouded in the shadows of the few lit candles that acted as night lights, making him seem statuette as he looked on, proud and imposing, yet gentle, and promising no harm. His gaze flickered to Konohamaru after addressing Naruto, who looked back ashamedly and averted his gaze to the ground.

There was a moment of still silence between the three, all waiting to see if Naruto would actually defy orders. He was breathing a tad hard, grip clenching a bit more instead of loosening like he was ordered to do.

But then his grip slackened on the young boy as he sighed, and he finally let Konohamaru drop back to his feet, annoyed.

Itachi nodded at him, knowing how hard it was for Naruto to reel back in his anger during any type of situation. "Konohamaru," he said, and the boy flinched, not daring to look up and instead focused on Naruto's bare feet, scowling at them as though they had done him some misjustice.

"Come with me," he continued while turning around, his voice almost a whisper now compared to his stern tone just a moment ago.

As he walked away Konohamaru trudged after him uncertainly, not wanting the punishment he knew he was sure to receive.

As the child disappeared after Itachi, Naruto ruffled his own hair annoyedly before he went to the older male bunks situated next to the younger ones. He knew Konohamaru was going to get what was coming to him, but it still left him upset that it wasn't a punishment by his hand. The kid just didn't know what he meant to Naruto, but Naruto didn't think he ever would.

He found the bunk that he shared near the end of the cave. Most all children shared one here due to the lack of space and beds.

He slipped into his side and faced away from the other, and for a brief moment it was quiet.

Then the person on the other side of the bed spoke up.

"Is Itachi taking care of him?" Sasuke asked, muffled by the sheets pulled up almost over his head.

All children here had a partner on the battlefield, and it was custom that they shared the same bed so that not only were they always together to situate themselves with each other's presence, but so they were always in-sync. The children had to get up together, eat together, and train together as well to make sure every partner knew what the other was capable of, and what their weaknesses were so that they could be made up for.

For Naruto, his weakness was aiming, something Sasuke excelled at.

And where Sasuke was weak in setting up traps, Naruto had earned himself the title as Ambush-Specialist.

That day's battle, however, wasn't something they had expected on happening, and from the beginning Naruto and Sasuke had been separated, cutting down on their efficiency level by about 64%, as their Lead Strategist, who makes the teams and battle formations in the first place, had so pleasantly put it during the meeting the leaders had had after the battle that day.

"Yeah," Naruto grumbled out, making a fist under the covers to stop himself from getting up and chasing after Konohamaru. "But it still makes me angry."

"He'll be fine," Sasuke said, and made to end the conversation there, but Naruto wasn't done speaking.

"You don't understand, Sasuke," he said, and Sasuke scoffed at that, but Naruto continued on. "You're the younger brother, so you don't know what it's like to_ have _a younger brother go out there and purposefully put themselves in danger. Just like Konohamaru did today. He's like _my _younger brother."

Sasuke stayed silent, either ignoring Naruto and having gone back to sleep, or thinking about what Naruto said to him. Either way Naruto continued.

"I'm sure if you ask Itachi about how he felt about what happened today, he'll say something of the same sort, if he says anything at all." Naruto laughed a bit, remembering how livid Itachi had looked when Sasuke had covered Naruto from being shot earlier. "I'm sure he'll be too embarrassed to share his emotions with you, even if he does care a lot. Neither of us want to see our younger brother's get hurt."

Sasuke shifted, and Naruto took that as a silent acknowledgement to his statement, and fell asleep, smiling.


End file.
